Why do organisms age? How can we influence our life span? The overall goal of our research is to uncover the basic causes and processes of ageing. Also, we strive to understand the nature of longevity and age-related diseases. In this sense we aim for fundamental discoveries into the underlying molecular, physiological and evolutionary mechanisms. At the same time we investigate how the ageing process might be ameliorated, since it is our long-term goal to pave the way towards increasing health during ageing in humans.